WADA panel member quits over lifting of RUSADA ban
News & Trends •
today wada has unequivocally told the world the type of organization it is one that supports the desires of a handful of sports administrators over the rights of millions of clean athletes1 olympic champion beckie scott resigned from the world anti-doping agencywada committee which recommended ending russias drug suspension on saturday as the global watchdog defended its handling of the case1 wadas disclosure of the committees decision on friday drew criticism from athletes and other testing bodies who claim russian authorities have not met set benchmarks necessary for readmission1 the wada decision also came after a leaked document earlier this week which showed that the committee had initially recommended leaving the ban in place at next weeks meeting1 scotts resignation which was reported by the canadian broadcasting corporation and the bbc appears to highlight tensions within wada over the decision1 scott will retain her role as the head of wadas athletes committee reports said1 the rusada has been suspended by wada since 2015 when the global agency revealed a vast russian state-supported doping scandal to cheat at the 2014 winter olympics and for years beforehand1 wadas apparent u-turn on friday was condemned by us anti-doping agency chief travis tygart1 frankly it stinks to high heaven tygart said demanding wada release all relevant correspondence regarding the issue1 scott one of six members of wadas compliance review committee stepped down a day after it emerged the panel had given a green light for the sanction against the russian anti-doping agency rusada to be lifted at a board meeting in the seychelles on september 201 wada on friday said its compliance committee was recommending lifting the suspension after reviewing a letter from the russian ministry of sport1 this letter sufficiently acknowledged the issues identified in russia therefore fulfilling the first of the two outstanding criteria of rusadas roadmap to compliance wada said1 it said russia had also agreed to provide access to data and samples in its moscow laboratory to wada via an independent expert1 however in a separate statement issued on saturday wada suggested lifting of the sanction next week was not a foregone conclusion1 it said russia still needed to provide data from the drug-tainted moscow laboratory at the centre of the scandal within a set time frame1 if the crcs recommendation is approved by the wada exco on 20 september rusada will be declared compliant wada said1 however for the avoidance of doubt the second condition demands that wada receives a copy of the former moscow laboratorys database and the raw data via an independent expert within a strict time limit to be determined by the exco1 if this is not met in full then the crc will recommend to the exco that rusada is once again declared non-compliant1